


D2: Weakness

by Jackkel Dragon (jackkel_dragon)



Series: Jackkel's Corpse Party Fanfic [1]
Category: Corpse Party (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 19:10:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18414095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackkel_dragon/pseuds/Jackkel%20Dragon
Summary: Note: Stories that take place in the CPD2 continuity may be contradicted by games made after Depths of Despair. The game continuity takes priority in conflicts.





	D2: Weakness

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Stories that take place in the CPD2 continuity may be contradicted by games made after Depths of Despair. The game continuity takes priority in conflicts.

“Naomi! Hey, Naomi! Wake up!”  
  
I felt like I was thinking through a fog. I could barely tell where I was. Gradually, I realized I felt really cold, and that I was lying down on wooden floorboards of some kind. Where was I?...  
  
A figure was standing over me... as my vision cleared, I started to make out a Kisaragi Academy uniform and name tag and then the boy's face started to come into focus.  
  
“Ah... Satoshi?...”  
  
Satoshi knelt down and offered me his hand. Not keen on getting splinters from the wooden floorboards, I gripped his hand and used him as leverage to get myself up. I was starting to remember where I was, but I was starting to wish it was all just a dream.  
  
“What happened to you?” Satoshi asked.  
  
“...Nothing. I was suddenly surrounded by spirits and...”  
  
“Spirits?” Satoshi looked around. “Did... did they do something to you?”  
  
I shook my head. “No. They told me they were just like us... forced down here against their will.”  
  
Satoshi stood there silently, a frown forming on his face. I decided I'd continue if he had nothing to say to that.  
  
“They told me that a spirit was calling people down here at random... as if searching for something...”  
  
Satoshi looked up at me. “Something? Like what?”  
  
“I don't know, but I suddenly heard a strange girl's voice.” I struggled to focus my mind on what the voice had said... “After that... everything went blank.”  
  
“A girl's voice?... Whose, I wonder?...” Satoshi's eyes widened suddenly. “Naomi, follow me.”  
  
I frowned at him. “Why?”  
  
“Yuka's trapped in the bathroom.”  
  
The hallway suddenly felt even colder as I imagined little Yuka trapped inside a bathroom stall, waiting for her brother to come help her. What the hell was Satoshi doing here?!  
  
“Y-you idiot! Why did you leave her?!”  
  
Satoshi backed away. “But... I heard you scream.”  
  
The chill in my bones was replaced by a flare of anger. I wasn't ever in danger, you dumbass!  
  
“...Are you retarded?! That's not reason enough!”  
  
Satoshi started shaking as if in fear. What the hell was he waiting for, an invitation to go save Yuka?! Did I need to get a loudspeaker and blast it into his ear?!  
  
“Come on, idiot. We gotta hurry!”  
  
I grabbed him by the shoulder and dug my nails in, dragging him along beside me as I ran down the hallway. Thankfully, my memory was starting to clear up and I found the bathroom Satoshi and Yuka had been using in just a few minutes.  
  
Satoshi wormed out of my grip as we reached the door, which I kicked in to appease my sudden desire to beat the crap out of Satoshi. He ran in as soon as the door was open, finally realizing that we needed to hurry and get Yuka out before something happened to her...  
  
I... was a bit taken aback by what I saw when I got a good look in the bathroom.  
  
One of the stalls was drenched in blood, as if someone had been pumping gallons of blood into it until it should have burst. There was still a trickle from above the stall, though it seemed to be done with whatever filled the stall to bursting. Blood covered the floor, probably making it too slippery to walk safely on.  
  
To my horror, Satoshi decided it was a good idea to reach for the handle of the blood-filled stall. I opened my mouth to yell at him to stop, then it hit me why he went for that stall.  
  
…  
  
I think I just stood there, spacing out, for a good minute or two. I literally couldn't believe what I saw in those two minutes.  
  
It was only after Satoshi shoved past me out of the bathroom, tears running down his face, that I finally came back to it.  
  
Yuka... was dead.  
  
My first instinct was to spin around and berate Satoshi for coming after me when his sister was drowning in the stall. But I couldn't even finish turning around before I started choking back tears of my own. There are certain expectations people have for when they see someone they care about die. I don't think anyone could ever be prepared for what I just saw. And I had only known Yuka for an hour or so... Satoshi... he...  
  
I couldn't let myself finish that thought. I just walked out of the bathroom and over to where Satoshi was staring out a window. Not much point, with the windows looking out at black nothingness, but I'll bet anything was better than what we had just seen.  
  
We stood there for a long time, not saying anything to each other. Just spacing out while staring at the windows. Eventually, I decided I had to say something to him...  
  
“Even though you came to help me...”  
  
Even thought he left Yuka to die... what? What were my words of comfort? How do you tell someone who just cradled his sister's bloated, bloodstained dead body that everything is going to be okay?  
  
Satoshi shook his head and started to wander away. I took a deep breath and tried to continue.  
  
“You...”  
  
He... what?  
  
He tried to be a hero... and picked the wrong girl to save. How do I make that sound comforting?  
  
“You're a good guy, Satoshi.”  
  
His heart was in the right place... he just made the wrong choice...  
  
“So... don't beat yourself up.”  
  
Satoshi turned to me, his head still down. I don't even remember feeling this bad when my dad died...  
  
Satoshi wiped a tear from his eye and took a few deep breaths. I reached out, hoping that I could do more to comfort him...  
  
Suddenly, Satoshi snapped at me, shoving my arm aside and glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.  
  
“That's right! You screamed! If you didn't scream, none of this would have happened!”  
  
I was shocked. I just stood there, my mouth open a little as if to respond and my arm still partially outstretched.  
  
“It was you!” Satoshi pointed an accusing finger at me. “It's all your fault!”  
  
I felt tears welling up in my eyes. He was right! Just before the spirits took me away, I yelped in fear. I didn't know I had nothing to be afraid of. I wanted Satoshi to be there with me...  
  
“...I'm... I'm sorry...”  
  
He only came to save me because I wanted to be saved. If I had just kept calm... if I was as tough as I act at school...  
  
“I'm so sorry... I... I made you leave... your precious sister...”  
  
I dropped to my knees and let the tears stream down my cheeks. I didn't even care that Satoshi was watching anymore. Maybe... maybe if he saw me like this... he'd find it in his heart to forgive me...  
  
A shadow came over me and I looked up to see Satoshi standing right in front of me. I could barely see him through the tears in my eyes.  
  
“I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry...”  
  
Satoshi reached down and wiped the tears from my eyes with one hand. I sniffled a bit and looked up to thank him. I wasn't prepared for what I saw.  
  
In the eyes of the boy I'd been tough on for years... the boy who I never had the courage to admit my feelings for... I saw nothing but hatred.  
  
“I'm SO sick of you!”  
  
He didn't even need to throw the punch that came after his outburst. I was already crushed beyond all hope...  
  
I suddenly found myself in my bed, sitting upright with cold sweat covering my body. It took me a moment to realize I had screamed as I woke up, but the soreness at the back of my throat reminded me well enough.  
  
“Just... another nightmare...”  
  
I looked at the digital clock next to my bed. 1 AM. I'd hardly gotten any sleep.  
  
I guess no sleep for me tonight...  
  
I stood up and went to turn on the lights in my room. With some light to see by, I checked the date on my calendar. October 21st , 2014. Less than a week until the anniversary of Yuka's death and Satoshi's disappearance.  
  
Every year, I thought I had finally gotten over what had happened. I never mustered up the courage to talk to a therapist about what happened in that old schoolhouse, of course. I'd probably be in a padded room by now if I had. But I knew that people that were still having vivid nightmares about their traumas six years later couldn't be normal.  
  
But every year, around mid October, I remember what happened that night...  
  
The one time I wanted to be saved, instead of being tough and doing things myself... I got someone killed.  
  
I shook those thoughts out of my head. If asking for help only hurt others, I'd just do things for myself from now on. I could handle that, right?  
  
I idly picked up my cell phone and flipped it open, seeing if anyone was sending me messages in the middle of the night. As it turned out, my best friend Seiko had sent me something. It looked like a forwarded invitation to some reunion at Kisaragi Academy being hosted by one of my old teachers, Ms. Yui.  
  
Seiko... I never told her what happened. But she could tell that nothing would ever be the same after that night...  
  
Seiko was the only friend from Kisaragi that I still spent time with. With Satoshi and Kishinuma gone and Ayumi becoming a recluse, I didn't have many other friends from school left.  
  
Just at that moment, I realized that I was using Seiko as a crutch. She was all I had left of the good memories before everything went to hell in that haunted schoolhouse. If I wanted to be strong enough to do things on my own... to prevent anyone else ending up like Yuka...  
  
No. I couldn't give up Seiko. She was the only happy thing left from my childhood before it was ripped away from me.  
  
Defeated, I put my cell phone back on my desk and plopped onto my bed. I wouldn't be able to sleep again tonight, I knew. But there was nothing else to do this early in the morning.  
  
I stewed on my thoughts for hours. I hated myself for being so weak when I needed to be strong. I hated myself for clinging to Seiko as a crutch instead of respecting her as a friend. I started to wonder if it would have been better if I had taken Yuka to that damn bathroom... Maybe... I could have taken her place in that stall.  
  
As the light of dawn started to filter in through the window, I began to control my thoughts. I had lasted six years since that nightmare. I could keep going. I would keep going. I couldn't let my mom and Seiko down...  
  
In those early hours of the day, I came to a decision. I picked up my phone from my desk and looked up Ms. Yui's listing on my contacts list and told her I'd be coming to the reunion. I don't remember who said it, maybe it was Ayumi... but the first step to overcoming your nightmares is to confront them.


End file.
